Re: Microcell issues

I've had the same issue. We bought the microcell a week and a half ago. It activated just fine, but has not stayed connected to 3g for more than 2-3 days at a time. Now I'm rebooting EVERY day. I'm thinking due to the posts I've read here that my best bet is to take it back and get my $200, and then switch to a cell provider that I can get service through in my home. When the microcell is connected, it works great. It's just not staying connected, even though all lights are green. Any suggestions? Advice? Should I jump ship before my 30 days are up??

Re: Microcell issues

Just like providing wireless service in the home, AT&T doesn't actually guarantee to provide microcell service in the home.

I've spent more than two hours dealing with "customer service" reps in the last two days. Here is what I had to try, that still does not work:

-Restart your phone every time you go near your microcell to make it connect, because it won't connect on it's own (so you'll miss calls every time you don't get home and spend 15 minutes connecting to the stupid device)

-Use airplane mode to reset the connect to your microcell. When that doesn't work, turn off your cellphone. When that doesn't work, unplug the microcell and wait half an hour for it to reconnect.

-Make sure you are not using a wireless internet provider, even if you are still able to connect to the actual modem.

-Switch internet providers. Twice. Continue dropping calls.

-Unregister and re-register your device three or four times (it does take about an hour each time). Do this until the website stops working. Scream.

AT&T is the single worst "service" provider ever. And I am a freaking chump. I'm paying for two service (wireless and microcell), and neither of them works. Even when I'm connected to my microcell, I drop calls.

Re: Microcell issues

Wow, I read about all the issues that folks have had and I'm a little surprised. I've been using an AT&T microcell since the day the were available in my area, registered it once, and it has performed pretty much flawlessly for over two years (no dropped calls, text messages work great, media messages work great). It has probably been down for a total of one hour over a two year time span. I normally have two iPhones on the system, and I also have friends that regularly visit with various models and the microcell just works! In fact, I we could not use our phones inside the house without it. My backhaul is through a cable modem, but it's not a horribly fast connection (15 Mb down, 1 Mb up). I do use an external GPS antenna so that I can place the microcell in the center of the house, but I don't use any particularity exotic network settings on my router.

I'm not saying that other folks don't have issues, but rather that there are AT&T microcells that perform as advertised.

Re: Microcell issues

That's pretty much been our experience as well. We had some trouble after about 8 months of use and got the MicroCell replaced (actually twice) under warranty. The third, and current MicroCell, had to be configured for port forwarding to a static ip but after that was done, it's been rock solid ever since even with multiple users. Some have no issues at all, some have bumps like us that takes a week or so to resolve, and others just flat out can't get it to work.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: Microcell issues

I had the same problem and ATT support was no help. The microcell used to drop the signal several times a day. A week ago I did three things that seem to work. I changed the microcell, replace the router with newer one from ASUS and disabled the switching in the setting. I am not sure which of these was the reason for the improvement, but it seems to be working now.

Re: Microcell issues

The ports to forward to a static IP address assigned to the MicroCell are: UDP 123 public and private, UDP 4500 public and private, UDP 500 public and private, and TCP 443 public and private. IPSec Passthrough is enabled and make sure only one of your devices is performing the NAT duties (usually the router). I'm putting together a Sticky that has links on how to configure various routers should you need to do port forwarding. Not everyone has to.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: Microcell issues

Has anyone who had their microcell stop working recently had their problem resolved. Mine worked for over a year with no issue and then just stopped a couple of weeks ago. I have been in contact with AT&T support (Clarify CM case ID is:CM20120920_49355704), asked for several updates and still do not have a solution., I cannot explain how frustrating this is, I work from home and rely on my cell phone but I have very poor AT&T coverage here. The microcell was the perfect solution. Being a network person by trade, I know that most issue like this are caused by change, but I assure you, nothing has changed in my internal network. I can see multiple UDP conversations between my microcell and various devices on the internet, but the device just sits there flashing it's pretyy little 3G bars at me. The only thing AT&T support people can say is "put it in priority mode". 1) it worked fine in it's current mode for a year why should I change it and 2) I do not what a device I cannot manage in front of my router. What's the deal, this cannot be that difficult.

Re: Microcell issues

jrlance wrote:

Has anyone who had their microcell stop working recently had their problem resolved. Mine worked for over a year with no issue and then just stopped a couple of weeks ago. I have been in contact with AT&T support (Clarify CM case ID is:CM20120920_49355704), asked for several updates and still do not have a solution., I cannot explain how frustrating this is, I work from home and rely on my cell phone but I have very poor AT&T coverage here. The microcell was the perfect solution. Being a network person by trade, I know that most issue like this are caused by change, but I assure you, nothing has changed in my internal network. I can see multiple UDP conversations between my microcell and various devices on the internet, but the device just sits there flashing it's pretyy little 3G bars at me. The only thing AT&T support people can say is "put it in priority mode". 1) it worked fine in it's current mode for a year why should I change it and 2) I do not what a device I cannot manage in front of my router. What's the deal, this cannot be that difficult.

Unfortunately I don't have a solution, but can confirm that I'm in the same position as you. My microcell stopped working about a week ago (after working well for two years), and I didn't change anything about my setup either.

3. Call ATT next day. Informed of system outage due to "bad firmware update." Told to wait.

4. Wait 2 days, call ATT again. Told outage was resolved and my device should be working. Told my device is bad and to get a new one, at my expense. After kicking and screaming, agreed to RMA my existing mcell.

I'm also basically stuck at this point, as nobody from ATT can help me to resolve the problem. I'm convinced, after trying a second mcell, that the problem is on ATT's, though they say there are no issues. I'm also seeing UDP traffic to the mcell, so I don't think my router settings changed. Just to be sure, I manually opened up the required ports on the UVerse router, with no change in behavior.

Sorry for just piling on with no solution, but I did want to confirm that you're not alone in what you're seeing.

Re: Microcell issues

...and it gets better and better. The last time I had AT&T on the phone they promised they would have a technician that could actually work with me call me back. I said that was wonderful, but don't have them call my cell phone because I HAVE NO SIGNAL WITHOUT MY MICROCELL. Guess what, they just tried to call my cell and they could not hear me so they hung up on me. I'm done, I have four phones under contract and the contracts all end in two weeks. My $3k a year in cell phone dollars will now go to Verizon. It didn't have to be this way, I am typically a loyal customer but I just can't deal with this incompetence any longer.

Re: Microcell issues

Drops microcell several times a day, started 3 weeks ago after 6 weeks ok. Have to un[plug/replug to get Microcell signal back up.

After talking with 3rd tech I suggested how hard would it be to set the "switch to cell tower" signal to "if I have less than 3 bars in Microcell signal" then stop trying to go to the cell signal? When it loses Microcell signal I only get 1 4G bar which is not enough to make calls.

He reset the "when your on a call stop trying to reset to cell tower" which is suppose to help from dropping calls. No reso;ution coming except to stop using it and cancel ATT.

Re: Microcell issues

I have all the same issues. According to AT&T help desk, the firmware update pushed out on 9/17 caused the problem. After unsuccessfully working with a tech for a week and tring all sorts of combinations, I decided to go to an AT&T store and ask for a new microcell. Surprisingly, they gave me one free without any questions.

I deactivated the old microcell and attempted to activate the new one. I was hoping that the bad firmware update would not be pushed out to the new microcell. But unfortuately, the new microcell behaves just like the old one with the 3G light continually flashing. I have deactivated to reactivated many times (definition of insanity???) without any change.

For now, I think we are all just stuck until AT&T can get things figured out.